The importance of Vaccinations: when should my kitten have its first vaccination?

Bringing a new kitten into your home can be a big step, but also very rewarding. Now you’ve decided you want to share your home with a new kitten, you have on average the next 14 to 15 years with your new feline friend.

Over this time frame a lot can happen that can affect your cats health, but there’s serious and common diseases that can be avoided.

Vaccinations

Having your kitten vaccinated is very important as it prevents against some serious and common diseases that can prove costly. It also prevents them from passing on diseases to other animals.

When it comes to getting your kitten vaccinated, in general, an initial vaccination course is made up of two separate injections three to four weeks apart. In the UK, most kittens have their first vaccination at nine weeks and the second vaccination at 12 weeks. After this, kittens and cats usually need ‘booster’ vaccinations every twelve months.

What do vaccinations protect against?

The vaccinations your cat receives will vary, but in the most part they cover a combination of serious and common diseases, which include:

-Feline Infectious Enteritis (FIE, feline panleukopenia, feline parvovirus)

-Feline herpesvirus (FHV-1) and feline calicivirus (FCV)- Cat flu

-Feline chlamydophilosis (Chlamydophila felis, feline chlamydophila infection)

-Feline leukaemia virus (FeLV)

These diseases are thankfully fairly uncommon amongst vaccinated animals these days, but this is mainly due to the widespread vaccination regime in operation. In areas where animals aren’t vaccinated, these diseases are very common and often fatal to the animals affected.

“I’ve read that annual vaccinations are a way for my vets to make money and are not needed”

Ultimately it’s up to you to decide if you want your cat to have annual vaccinations. Annual vaccinations are important as viruses change over time (think flu), by vaccinating your kitten/cat annually, this will provide them the best cover.

If you live in an area with low vaccination rates, many of the diseases listed above are still common. It’s heart breaking to see an animal die of a readily preventable disease and while they may have had their two vaccinations early on in life, they could still come into contact with new diseases that weren’t around then, this is why it’s important for your cat to keep up to date with annual vaccinations.

Are annual vaccinations expensive?

Annual vaccinations aren’t going to leave a hole in your purse; in fact they can prevent against any costly treatments.

Our 365 Care Plan which includes annual vaccinations* can be paid in easy and affordable monthly direct debits. (Click here to view the full 365 Plan).

Are kittens vaccinated when adopted?

This would depend entirely on where the kitten was adopted. Cat centres such as Cat Protection and the RSPCA will vaccinate a kitten or cat before they move to their new home.

If your kitten has come from a private breeder or anywhere else, it’s important to ask the person who has been looking after the kitten/ cat if they’ve had them vaccinated, if they say yes- make sure they provide you with a vaccination record.

BUY 3 get 1 FREE on pet parasite products

During July we are offering BUY 3 get 1 FREE on selected small animal parasite products.

We currently have selected pet parasite products on a BUY 3 GET 1 FREE OFFER and for July we’ll be adding even more popular products to this great offer.

Please contact your Oakhill Veterinary Centre for further details.

Oakhill Nurses WIN BVNA competition

Our team of Registered Veterinary Nurses have been celebrating winning first place in the BVNA ‘Best Display Showing the role of the Veterinary Nurse’ competition.

May is BVNA Veterinary Nursing Awareness Month in which Veterinary Nurses and their practices across the country celebrate their role by taking part in a number of activities and competitions run by the BVNA, which demonstrate their important qualifications.

During the month, our nurses took part in World Horse Welfare Penny Farm Dog show, by offering free weight checks on their Oakhill stand and discussing the importance of preventative healthcare with dog owners.

Each client who attended a nurse clinic throughout May was entered into a free prize draw to win some great prizes.

Every year, the nurses create decorative displays for each branch, highlighting the role of the veterinary nurse. The year’s displays consisted of a colourful A-Z of veterinary nursing theme, explaining the vet nurse qualification and the services they are qualified to offer in branch.

It was recently announced that our Conway Drive branch had won first prize in the BVNA Best Display ‘Showing the role of the Veterinary Nurse’

Well done to our fantastic team of veterinary nurses!

Free Heart Blood Cardio Test for predisposed dog breeds

Certain large and giant breed dogs over the age of 3 are at an increased risk of developing DCM (Dilated Cardiomyopathy).

If you have one of the predisposed breeds* over 3 years old, currently not on heart medication/treatment, we would like to invite you to bring your dog/s to the practice to discuss a new screening programme for a type of heart disease called Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM).

*Predisposed breeds include Boxers, Dobermans, Newfoundlands, German Shepherds, St Bernards, Great Danes, Bernese Mountain Dogs, Dalmations, Deerhound, Dogue de Bordeaux, Leonberger, Rottweiler, St. Bernard.

There are two phases to DCM; firstly a long silent phase, in which the heart has the disease and is slowly deteriorating but there are no outward signs of a problem yet. Dogs in this first phase appear outwardly healthy and happy. The second phase is a shorter overt phase where the heart can no longer cope and starts to fail. At this point outward signs of the disease start to be seen.

As dogs in the first phase of the disease appear outwardly normal it is incredibly difficult to identify which dogs have a problem. We can only diagnose dogs in this phase if we perform specific screening tests to assess the heart.

A simple screening programme is now available; which involves us checking your dog/s and performing a FREE heart blood test. This blood test measures the levels of a substance called pro-BNP, which is released into the blood stream when the heart muscle stretches excessively, such as in dogs with DCM.

If your dog returns an abnormal blood test result, one of our vets will discuss next steps with you, which could involve a non-painful, non-invasive ultrasound scan of the heart.

Offer ends 30th June 2017

Please click here for the information leaflet on DCM.

The Big Ticks Project reveals tick threat where you are.

From April to September with Chris Packham , MSD Animal Health will be back raising awareness of ticks and tick borne disease with dog owners nationwide!

To understand the threat that tick pose to pets and owners in your area take a look at the UK tick map:
http://www.bigtickproject.co.uk/uk-tick-threat-map/

Conducted by MSD Animal Health and the University of Bristol, the Big Tick Project is the largest and most comprehensive study on tick species and prevalence in individual regions of the UK.1

Overall the results1 show that:

Nearly 1 in 3 dogs in the study were infested with ticks.
Dogs that live in both urban and rural areas are equally at risk of exposure to them and tick-borne diseases.
Nearly 90% of ticks found were I.ricinus, a known carrier of the pathogen that causes Lyme disease in people and their pets

To find out more about the treatment of animal parasites, please click here.

PetPlan Award nominations 2017

Petplan has worked closely with the veterinary profession for over 40 years and sees first hand each day the fantastic work that goes on in veterinary practices across the UK.

This year we have had several members of staff, in various roles and divisions, have been nominated for an award.

Small Animal vets, Judith Lee and Kimberley Ashurst are thrilled to be nominated for ‘Vet of the Year’, as are Leona Bramall and Suzanne Green in our Equine division.

Support team members, Sue Townley (in our Accounts Department) and Aly Heggie (Equine Support) have also been nominated for the first time.

Another big win for Nicola Porter

For the second year running, our Small Animal Head Nurse, Nicola Porter has won ‘RoR North West Regional League’ with her horse ‘King of Chavs’.

An amazing achievement Nicola and Chav, well done!